Apparatus for assembling piles of printed signatures into batches

An apparatus for assembling piles of newspapers and the like, comprising a pile-advancing rollerway and a pair of shafts extending at both sides of this rollerway and carrying a pair of oppositely arranged S-shaped levers defining therebetween a pile assembling zone. The shafts are driven for opposite timed rotation, so that the arms of the levers pass through the space intermediate of the rollers of the rollerways, move toward each other and overlap to raise a pile and to hold it in the assembling zone, whereafter the arms spread apart to lower the pile onto the successive pile, so that a batch is formed. A pair of drums is mounted in advance of the assembling zone longitudinally of the rollerway to guide a pile into the zone; mounted in this assembling zone, in front of the S-shaped levers, are vertically extending driven rollers adapted to effect positive levelling of the lateral sides of the pile. The provision of the drums and of the driven rollers prevent displacement and skewing of a pile relative to the longitudinal axis of the rollerway, thus providing high quality batches assembled from the piles.